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Hi guys!
So, everything is running well so far. I prefer the 8525 over my other units (SX66 and 8125), but now I have an interesting question for you guys...
I just bought two 8525s, one for me and one for my dad.
He's a newb.
When a PocketPC is gonna be used by me, I spend a good week here, and learn about all the different ROMS, the pros and cons of each Radio Version... I tweak the extended ROMs to leave in just what I need, and so forth...
HOWEVER.... Seeing as though one of my 8525's is going to a NON-Power user like ourselves....
....Would you, off-hand, based on your experience with these devices, leave it as-is as it came in the box, or do you think I should educate myself and offer him non "commercial release" ROMs and so forth.
I SIM Unlocked the one in front of me, and this is what I have:
HERM100
ROM 2.15.502.3
Radio 1.16
Protocol 32.52.7018.01H
You can REST ASSURED that in MY unit, I'll be investigating ALL the new Radio Versions, and so forth. But sometimes the consequences are not so pretty.
So, any advice is welcome...
Hand over this baby with my favorite apps,
or......
Start upgrading and then give it to him.
I've only had these for a day, so I trust your judgement more than me, and he's anxious!
Thanks!
Mike
Proto
If he doesn't care about it other than "it makes calls", then don't waste the time and just hand it over. Why take the slimmest chance of running into problems if you're just handing it over? If he only needs it for a phone, I wouldn't mess with it. It works fine right out of the box w/o adding a lot of junk to it.
As for yours, knock yourself out! I love tweakin my 8525 and don't care if I run into a wall, unless its a brick wall. Part of the fun is learning to work through the problems you incur.
It's a real toss up, on one hand leaving it stock will have it's advantages as he won't have to wonder if he's doing something wrong or if it's a "tweak" issue.
On the other hand, most of these ROMS are pretty damn stable anyway.
I'd lean towards upgrading it (after you have done yours) to whatever you use. That way you will be better placed to fix anything he breaks as you will be more familiar with it...
That and I just like upgrading things.
This is cool advice... and I agree with both trains of thoughts.
Let me then try to focus on the Hermes/8525:
I dunno.. I have been using mine all day, and it's worked like a charm. Bluetooth worked well. Battery life seems acceptable. Can surf via wifi and via GPRS. Seems like the production ROM ain't so bad!
When it came to my SX66... oh my god... the production ROM SUCKED big time! Radio problems! Bluetooth problems! Memory management problems!
With the 8125... the ROMS were useful, but had their share of quirks... "The system font changes to Times new Roman"..... "The Close GPRS button no longer works..." etc.
So, are the 8525 ROMS really pretty stable?
Overall, do they really do a lot of good?
Beleive me, for my device... I plan on spending the next two weeks learning EVERYTHING!
But for him... Is there any real compelling reason to say, "That Radio version is TERRRRIBLE!" or "You will increase battery life by 100% by upgrading the ROM!!".... or, not so much?
(I think I am just being lazy and wanna give him the unit already!! I want to read the Wiki and explore the ROMS at my pace!)
But I gotta tell ya... so far... mine is behaving quite nicely, with no ROM tweaks.....!
The stock 8525 came with a buggy WM5 and it hangs couple times a week..why not put Vanilla WM6 OS onto the phone and make it a more stable, longer battery life phone for the non pro to use?
trashcan said:
The stock 8525 came with a buggy WM5 and it hangs couple times a week..why not put Vanilla WM6 OS onto the phone and make it a more stable, longer battery life phone for the non pro to use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gulp!
I was afraid someone would post something along these lines!
I spoke to my dad. I have until Wednesday to play, then he wants his unit.
Until then, I'll see what I can absorb!
Thanks!
Besides wanting his phone by Wednesday, what does he want? Did he ask you to tweak it or upgrade it? Perhaps he would enjoy reading some of the threads here himself? I would say the decision should be his since he will be the one using it. If it were me I would give it to him factory fresh, show him this site, and offer to assist him if he wants to upgrade or has any problems with the "out of box" config.
PS: don't brick the phone trying to rush an upgrade by Wednesday!
You know what?
I totally agree with you.
I think I will just leave it as-is (after unlocking it), plus I'll put in my usual killer apps (spb pocket plus, Voice Command, Weather Panel, Adobe, MS Reader, 1-calc, etc.)
And leave it.
ALTHOUGH.... I do have to say....
My unit required three reboots in two days.
Frozen!
Also, the battery life seems to be pretty crappy.
AND, I am hearing some pausing/skipping in the audio.
Soooooooo....... I think I'll have to read up way more on the units.
But in the meantime, I'll give him mine on Wednesday, which is fresh.
Then I'll do some serious research here.
Upgrade mine.
Then I'll ask him for his back, and upgrade it, too.
I am surprised that the unit isn't so stable after all.
I guess that's why we all come here in the first place!
Hello, I'm kinda new to the forum, although I've been reading a lot, as well as downloading and flashing a few roms onto my phone.
I'm writing this thread with a pretty basic but complicated question (sorry for the oxymoron). Let me begin by saying, I'm what you'd call a heavy electronics user. That means I get something and then I use the stuffing out of it, testing to see it's limits. That also means I spend a lot of time trying new software to see what my devices can do.
The Athena has been one hell of a cool device from day one, and the day I actually figured out how to install new ROMs onto it, was the day it really opened up for me. My problem now is, I need a rom which supports such behavior. I'm finding that the roms I've tried so far, all have a problem of their own. Some sort of bug or glitch which kinda dampens the experience.
In AP4, it was good, but I noticed some incompatibilities with programs I used on the original rom. I then tried AP5 beta. This rom is MUCH quicker, however it's very proned to freezing during video playback using coreplayer and now my mediaplayer won't play anything, it just likes to freeze and force a hard reset.
I am about to try Michy's 6.1 SPL3.5. I'm curious to know whether this one is more stable than the 1.2 version or not. Compatibility is a big issue with me. As I said before, I use a lot of different apps and games on my phone, I find it fun to experiment a lot and push the phone for a (look what it can do) feeling of pride.
I suppose one of the problems I'm facing is that my expectations of smoothness are a bit high (I had two iphones before this) so I tend to notice lag and choppiness as well as incompatibility. I'm not saying I'd like to get an iphone again, because frankly, I'm tired of that trendy piece of junk. I like the community here on XDA and the amount of options available for this phone thanks to all the people on these forums.
I would really appreciate some feedback from the other users (and even developers if they'd care to share) as to which ROM would be best suited to a user the likes of which I've just described to you.
Many many thanks in return, and also, happy new year to all of you.
Caid.
Welcome
Hello and welcome to the forum
The first thing I will say to you about cooked roms is they are in a constant state of trial. I doubt there is a cooked rom out there that doesn't have a bug or two, but when you put them beside a stock rom then you start to see how advanced they are. we tend to take a stock rom as perfect but they are far from it. I tend to think of roms like a piece of art, they are never finished, they just get to a point that is just about right. I never fails to amaze me the time and trouble the cooks of our forums go to, to make these roms for others to use. never be shy to use the donate button, just think what you would need to pay to get this servce in a retail world and always be ready to give constructive feedback.
Michy has turned out some superb work and I for one keep going back to his R4.1 rom as it seems to have the most stable features. having said that there is little to choose between any of them in terms of reliability. He has not long ago brought out a clean rom HERE that may suit you to try out software on.
In the end my own advice would be keep trying different roms and you will soon find a favourite cook and rom to use. SPL 3.5 just means you get more space to put things on a rom, I cant say that either 3.5 or 1.2 is more stable than the other.
Good luck
Regards
Jay
responderman said:
Hello and welcome to the forum
The first thing I will say to you about cooked roms is they are in a constant state of trial. I doubt there is a cooked rom out there that doesn't have a bug or two, but when you put them beside a stock rom then you start to see how advanced they are. we tend to take a stock rom as perfect but they are far from it. I tend to think of roms like a piece of art, they are never finished, they just get to a point that is just about right. I never fails to amaze me the time and trouble the cooks of our forums go to, to make these roms for others to use. never be shy to use the donate button, just think what you would need to pay to get this servce in a retail world and always be ready to give constructive feedback.
Michy has turned out some superb work and I for one keep going back to his R4.1 rom as it seems to have the most stable features. having said that there is little to choose between any of them in terms of reliability. He has not long ago brought out a clean rom HERE that may suit you to try out software on.
In the end my own advice would be keep trying different roms and you will soon find a favourite cook and rom to use. SPL 3.5 just means you get more space to put things on a rom, I cant say that either 3.5 or 1.2 is more stable than the other.
Good luck
Regards
Jay
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hehe thanks. I think that my clean is good for your need: it has not any add-in that can disturb other software. No additionals dlls too (only WMP HTC's codecs). This bring to his users a fast bootup time, and a fast response. (+ a lot of free ram!)
Michy's rom
Of all the roms I've tried so far (5 cooked roms to date) Michy's was the most stable, however, my gprs internet doesn't work with that rom. It's the same situation with the official English rom, whereas the official Chinese rom worked for gprs. I'm in China, and I have ChinaUnicom, so for some reason, with certain roms, I'm unable to use the gprs internet.
If I could get around this problem, I'd be going through all of Michy's roms, looking for the most suitable one for me. I just signed up with a very high priced mobile internet monthly package, so I must take advantage of it.
I guess I could always ask, is there any fix for this problem other than completely changing the rom? AP roms allow me to use the gprs, but michy's and official English ones do not.
Caid.
BTW, All the roms on here really are like art, and I absolutely love my phone if only for all the work that the developers on here are doing. You guys rock!
Hello again
GPRS and such like are ALWAYS FINE with all of Michy's roms. Out of interest, you are using the Network wizard app to set up your country and provider in connections settings??? 3g and high speed data are no problem either if your country supplies them
Regards
Jay
response to all gprs works.
The situation is as follows. When I have AP anything on here (3-5beta) the gprs automatically detects as soon as the rom is finished setting up and the sim card is installed, it just brings up a notification saying it's there.
For Michy's 6.1 rom, all the fields were empty as far as provider and settings are concerned. Granted, my phone seems to think I'm with another company (as the name of the ISP on my cellphone is the wrong one) but I can still get on the network.
I've set the settings on Michy's ROM to no avail, I just can't get on.
Caid.
Caid444;3116608ChinaUnicom[/QUOTE said:
Did it work before with official roms ? Have you tried their GPRS network with another device ?
I'm asking this because from what I remember China Unicom historically had a CDMA network and is late compared to China Mobile on the GPRS/EDGE deployment. So areyou sure that GPRS by Unicom is available in your area ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hello again
Ok, I wrote my last reply at 4 in the morning my time, so perhaps it was a bit confusing.
I have a China Unicom account, NOT a China Mobile one. When I bought the phone, it was all in Chinese. I paid the seller to put an English rom on it (I didn't know how at the time). When the OS was Chinese, it brought up a notification as soon as I put in my sim card, that said, setting up gprs network. Continue? I clicked yes, and there it was, gprs network (edge in fact).
The phone called it ChinaMobile, although I don't imagine it's possible for a Unicom user to use China Mobile's gprs. The card is not CDMA, and therefore I would be unable to use CDMA network regardless (even the phone can't use CDMA.)
After installing the English ROM at the store, the guy who did it told me I wouldn't be able to use cellphone internet. Of course, he told me in Chinese, and I don't understand enough Chinese to really know why.
After I installed AP4 on it, it suddenly found the network again, same with AP network 5 beta. However, when I installed Michy's clean 6.1 (beautifully stable ROM btw) I wasn't able to get on again. No auto detect, and even after putting in the information from China Unicom, it still wouldn't connect.
There, in a very large nutshell, is my problem.
Caid.
OK I understand your problem now, I just checked my michy rom and youre right, it only has china one on it. the best thing you can do is contact Pawel062 or irus and ask them for THEIR network cab to install, as they know AP 4.0 inside out. pawel062 made AP 4.0 so if anyone has it then he does.
The other answer is load a rom that sets up your phone company and make a note of all the settings in the settings/connections/connections/manage existing connections, the only thing it will not say is the password . Then load them into michy's rom manually. OR ge onto your phone company(google it?) and get them to tell you them, but it has to be down to the last full stop!!!
Hope this helps
Regards
Jay
EDIT: Ok after looking on google, it seems there are so few settings it is more hastle to get a cab than just put them in yourself. experimnt a bit, just get GPRS working before you set up the ROM. then if you need to hard reset, no problems.
Thanks for the help.
I will try to contact the people you mentioned for a cab file.
I just want to ask, where should I try to contact them, and what exactly should I ask for? I'm worried that I'll waste the little time that they may help me by putting their help to work in the wrong method, or for the wrong thing.
I am REALLY excited to use Michy's ROM, because the AP5 beta rom that I am using freezes about 5 times a day (more if I try to do too much).
Thanks again for the help so far, and any help you offer in the future.
Caid.
Thanks.
Jay, thank you for your help. After reading what you wrote, it broke down a mental barrier I had about being able to connect. After being told that I could not connect by the people who installed my first ROM, I guess I complicated things more than I should have and wasn't able to see what to do.
Your suggestions have led me to be able to connect to the network using Michy's ROM. It has also given me more questions I will need to find answers to on my own, mainly, why does the network require settings from the opposing company. I am only able to access the net if I use the settings (including the address "cmnet") from the competition. I am now wondering if my phone is accessing their internet, and if so, how much money this will end up costing me if things aren't in sync.
I didn't think it would be possible to get on the net through the other company, but now I am wondering if that is so. I guess I have some work to do.
Anyway, regardless, you've helped me answer some major questions, and you've also helped me open my phone to more roms. My main thing here is stability and use, and now I can have both of those.
Again (third time?) Thank you greatly, and thank you Michy for an amazingly solid rom.
Caid.
Caid444 said:
Jay, thank you for your help. After reading what you wrote, it broke down a mental barrier I had about being able to connect. After being told that I could not connect by the people who installed my first ROM, I guess I complicated things more than I should have and wasn't able to see what to do.
Your suggestions have led me to be able to connect to the network using Michy's ROM. It has also given me more questions I will need to find answers to on my own, mainly, why does the network require settings from the opposing company. I am only able to access the net if I use the settings (including the address "cmnet") from the competition. I am now wondering if my phone is accessing their Internet, and if so, how much money this will end up costing me if things aren't in sync.
I didn't think it would be possible to get on the net through the other company, but now I am wondering if that is so. I guess I have some work to do.
Anyway, regardless, you've helped me answer some major questions, and you've also helped me open my phone to more roms. My main thing here is stability and use, and now I can have both of those.
Again (third time?) Thank you greatly, and thank you Michy for an amazingly solid rom.
Caid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi caid
You are very welcome, i've been there, got the t-shirt, read the book. so I know how frustrating it can be to struggle on something, but its great to get there. Could it be the that the two companies share Internet?? I cant see how they could charge you if it was another company, and I don't see how you could connect to it if it was not from your own phone company. As for Michy roms, I've tried them all and for a straight forward rom with everything working I would recommend 4.1 a Vista type. An XP type one is 1.88, and his latest 6.1 is very flash!
Have fun
Jay
Thanks for the advice.
I've been using Michy's 6.1 clean for about a week. I have noticed it isn't very compatible with the htc task manager, and tends to do some weird glitch where the task manager becomes unresponsive and instead reroutes me to the time and date. I think I'll uninstall that app and try another. Any suggestions on what I should use to manage running programs?
Aside from that, I'm interested in finding a rom that makes the phone look quite different. I think what I'm most interested in is seeing my phone surprise me. I love Michy's ROM so far, it's fast and very efficient, but I still want to see some flashiness on this 628mhz beast I call a phone. Any suggestions would be great.
Again, thanks for all the support so far from all of you (namely Jay and Michy). If it weren't for you, this phone would be a whole lot more vanilla.
Caid.
edit:
To be more specific about what I'm trying to do, I really want to make my friend's iphone look functionless and linear compared to my phone I feel that because this phone is so hacked, there must be a ROM out there that really changes it's looks from a wm6 device to a more custom interface.
You can use spb shell or maybe other programs that I'm not aware of. That's the beauty of winmo, you can install your programs of choice !
Caid444 said:
I've been using Michy's 6.1 clean for about a week. I have noticed it isn't very compatible with the htc task manager, and tends to do some weird glitch where the task manager becomes unresponsive and instead reroutes me to the time and date. I think I'll uninstall that app and try another. Any suggestions on what I should use to manage running programs?
Aside from that, I'm interested in finding a rom that makes the phone look quite different. I think what I'm most interested in is seeing my phone surprise me. I love Michy's ROM so far, it's fast and very efficient, but I still want to see some flashiness on this 628mhz beast I call a phone. Any suggestions would be great.
Again, thanks for all the support so far from all of you (namely Jay and Michy). If it weren't for you, this phone would be a whole lot more vanilla.
edit:
To be more specific about what I'm trying to do, I really want to make my friend's iphone look functionless and linear compared to my phone I feel that because this phone is so hacked, there must be a ROM out there that really changes it's looks from a wm6 device to a more custom interface.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the big up, but its all about helping one another.
Have you tried THIS one that goes with mobile shell, its very good and its freeware. Dont forget to donate if you like it though. You can even make it look like an I-phone if thats your thing. It has clocks, icons, skins wallpapers, and all touchflo. LOL
Have fun
Jay
Hi,
This is just a sum up of my last two day's experience flashing my Athena.
When I got it from eBay, it hat the german WM5 installed. Though I speak German, I did not want a german Firmware, so I installed Michy's WM6.1.
I was quite happy with it, but one thing annoyed me: on the original WM5, I could scroll in IE by tilting the device and Opera worked quite well, too.
On Michy's firmware, that functionality lacked somehow.
What I never got used to, was the huge size of icon's and menu's, so I started to use RealVGA. Unfortunatly the phone dialer doesn't like it, so I had to install an alternative software for it.
Over all, the phone worked pretty OK.
Because I got the swine flue, I had some extra time on my own, specially inbetween the fevers and so I decided to try out AP40, specially in order to get the SPL35 done for future WM6.5 releases.
1) AP40
The install went through fine and I had no problems.
First thing I checked was WIFI, because of the dreaded MAC-loss, but WIFI worked straight ahead.
I finished syncing, rebuilding all links in Start Menu and was happy about the new firmware...
...until I tried to switch on WIFI again. It could see my AP's, but Athena would not connect to any.
2) WM6.5
Because I did not find any fix for that, but found a few posts of others complaining about the same problem with AP40, I moved on and installed avengerpenguin's WM6.5.
While the ROM is great and the only bug I noticed was the wrong mapping of the FUNCTION key, I discovered something else:
WM6.5 sucks!
Huge icons, in a kind of honeycomb arrangement, making you have to scroll forever until the required icon is found.
Everything slow like hell (and Athena's CPU is fast enough, I would say).
Also, the menu structure is ridiculous. Makes no sense at all.
3) Back to Michy WM6.1
At then end, I went back to the ROM I had in the beginning of this journey. Now I need to rebuild all the Start Menu links (stupid me, I deleted the backup). It's about 30-40 programs I have installed on my SD - what the heck.
Conclusions:
1) AP40 has indeed a WIFI problem besides the missing MAC. This renders AP40 pretty useless to me.
2) WM6.5 sucks big time. I hate it.
3) Not sure if I should try an official WM6.0 ROM, before restoring all links. Curious about IE supporting the tilting to scroll.
4) My next phone will be an iPhone. Yes, I said it. Here is why:
- best browser around
- has some great applications
- best touch screen around
- just works
Perhaps I am getting old, but I do feel frustrated of having to flash all these firmware and none is giving all I need. Each firmware has something great but lacks something else.
Of course it's not the cookers fault - they are doing a great job.
It rather seems that Microsoft and the Provider (not even HTC's fault), just don't seem to give a F*** to their customer's satisfaction.
Example: How can it be possible that a device as the Athena, with such a big screen, has to be put up with the same menu's like a QVGA device? It almost hurts the eye to have such big menu's and icons.
Of course, you can install RealVGA, but then half of the programs don't work properly...
I just hope the company switches provider soon and gives me the option to pay the price difference for the iPhone.
Cheers,
vma
firmware frustration
vma said:
Hi,
This is just a sum up of my last two day's experience flashing my Athena.
When I got it from eBay, it hat the german WM5 installed. Though I speak German, I did not want a german Firmware, so I installed Michy's WM6.1.
I was quite happy with it, but one thing annoyed me: on the original WM5, I could scroll in IE by tilting the device and Opera worked quite well, too.
On Michy's firmware, that functionality lacked somehow.
What I never got used to, was the huge size of icon's and menu's, so I started to use RealVGA. Unfortunatly the phone dialer doesn't like it, so I had to install an alternative software for it.
Over all, the phone worked pretty OK.
Because I got the swine flue, I had some extra time on my own, specially inbetween the fevers and so I decided to try out AP40, specially in order to get the SPL35 done for future WM6.5 releases.
1) AP40
The install went through fine and I had no problems.
First thing I checked was WIFI, because of the dreaded MAC-loss, but WIFI worked straight ahead.
I finished syncing, rebuilding all links in Start Menu and was happy about the new firmware...
...until I tried to switch on WIFI again. It could see my AP's, but Athena would not connect to any.
2) WM6.5
Because I did not find any fix for that, but found a few posts of others complaining about the same problem with AP40, I moved on and installed avengerpenguin's WM6.5.
While the ROM is great and the only bug I noticed was the wrong mapping of the FUNCTION key, I discovered something else:
WM6.5 sucks!
Huge icons, in a kind of honeycomb arrangement, making you have to scroll forever until the required icon is found.
Everything slow like hell (and Athena's CPU is fast enough, I would say).
Also, the menu structure is ridiculous. Makes no sense at all.
3) Back to Michy WM6.1
At then end, I went back to the ROM I had in the beginning of this journey. Now I need to rebuild all the Start Menu links (stupid me, I deleted the backup). It's about 30-40 programs I have installed on my SD - what the heck.
Conclusions:
1) AP40 has indeed a WIFI problem besides the missing MAC. This renders AP40 pretty useless to me.
2) WM6.5 sucks big time. I hate it.
3) Not sure if I should try an official WM6.0 ROM, before restoring all links. Curious about IE supporting the tilting to scroll.
4) My next phone will be an iPhone. Yes, I said it. Here is why:
- best browser around
- has some great applications
- best touch screen around
- just works
Perhaps I am getting old, but I do feel frustrated of having to flash all these firmware and none is giving all I need. Each firmware has something great but lacks something else.
Of course it's not the cookers fault - they are doing a great job.
It rather seems that Microsoft and the Provider (not even HTC's fault), just don't seem to give a F*** to their customer's satisfaction.
Example: How can it be possible that a device as the Athena, with such a big screen, has to be put up with the same menu's like a QVGA device? It almost hurts the eye to have such big menu's and icons.
Of course, you can install RealVGA, but then half of the programs don't work properly...
I just hope the company switches provider soon and gives me the option to pay the price difference for the iPhone.
Cheers,
vma
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HI vma
I must say frankly, you've just expressed the conclusion I have been slowly coming to myself. I have also tried all possible roms and actually never been happy as there's always sth that doesn't work.
Perhaps it's windows mobile. I still hesitate as I'm waiting for a new athena from HTC. But perhaps Iphone is not such a bad idea.
Hi,
When I saw a first reply, I though it was to flame me for my unkind word to WM devices...
I have to admit I was a bit pissed. Afterall it took me two days of flashing, backing up, restoring backups, only to realize that the firmware I had (Michy's WM6.1) wasn't that bad.
During all that I thought I had fried my Athena - it stopped responding and it took me hald an hour to realize that the trick is to hold BOTH the camera and the communications buttons, while doing the reset.
I then reinstalled Michy's ROM again and somehow it has a bug, which must be the reason I had problems in the past: it will produce errors syncronizing.
At the end I thought that after so much efforts and me being in bed anyway, I might as well give the official WM6 from T-Mobile a try.
Well, I just finished shaping it to my desires. Took quite some time, but: tilting works, Youtube works (not inside the browser, but still it works), Opera and IE have nice renderings, allowing to zoom in and out (somehow on Michy's ROM the zoomlevel was always to big).
I think the ROM is now pretty OK. If I knew how to cook ROM's, I would cook it exactly like this.
Does this give me inner peace to take back what I said before?
No.
I am totally disappointed by WM6.5. It just sucks and is a waste of space on any screen with more than 320x200 resolution.
It is a waste on resources (our devices have faster and faster processors, yet WM seems to get less and less responsive).
The most important applications are the internet applications: wtf has IE such a big menu bar on top and bottom?
The list goes on and on and I won't even bother.
To all the cooks: I truly respect and appreciate your work. Please don't get annoyed by my postings. It is not your fault that Microsoft has been producing such a bad OS.
To all of you, who did not yet try it: pick an iPhone from someone (not the ones in the shops, specially the ones not connected to the internet) and play with it for 10 minutes... You will understand what I mean:
- you swipe the finger to scroll a page and it like flies under your finger. No resistance or lag whatsoever
- you open a webpage and it loads FAST. You can scroll it, zoom in and out and it just is so responsive
Ok. Enough crying...
Truth is: look at my signature and see that I always liked WinCE devices a lot... Shame the evolution seemed to have gone the wrong way.
Cheers,
vma
vma said:
Because I did not find any fix for that, but found a few posts of others complaining about the same problem with AP40, I moved on and installed avengerpenguin's WM6.5.
While the ROM is great and the only bug I noticed was the wrong mapping of the FUNCTION key, I discovered something else:
WM6.5 sucks!
Huge icons, in a kind of honeycomb arrangement, making you have to scroll forever until the required icon is found.
Everything slow like hell (and Athena's CPU is fast enough, I would say).
Also, the menu structure is ridiculous. Makes no sense at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe I can answer some of your issues with 6.5, the function key, is close to being fixed just needs some work on the keyboard map posted by xtep in the x7510 section.
The icons/menu can be fixed to an extent, not sure how though, it is possible to get smaller icons etc 4 or 5 across but I havent had time to research it fully as yet, also I have used some 6.5 roms for my blackstone that manage to use the old 6.1 menu system.
Now the biggest possibly hardest issue is the speed, I believe that most of the issues come from the fact that we do not have a native 6.5 memory kernel for the athena, which gives an additional 2 32mb memory slots to the OS, I am no expert but I think it is possible to port a memory kernel to the athena but this exceeds my capabilities and I am yet to find someone who can do it.
This would give us the greatest increase in speed etc, whilst my roms are optimized as far as I am capable there is still a long way to go.
However with this said I do agree with you winmo 6.5 is not that fast, not as fast as it should be with a 624mhz processor. When you compare it to something like android or Iphone it really seems to show its age/limitations
for me the R0 6.1 ROM has given me the most speed of ANY ROM out yet. It also has no bugs that I can see. Mem after a reset is 70MB and I think this goes a long way to giving the most speed.
I also want to make sure I'm not misunderstood, I think all the cooks on here have done incredible things given the constraints this OS gives them and my hats off to all of you that put so much time into developing new ROMs.
One other issue I think has hampered overall speed and usefullnes is the lack of a good driver for the graphics chip in the athena. I don't think we have ever had full access to it so rendering could be greatly improved thus making the speed that much better.
mietulok said:
HI vma
I must say frankly, you've just expressed the conclusion I have been slowly coming to myself. I have also tried all possible roms and actually never been happy as there's always sth that doesn't work.
Perhaps it's windows mobile. I still hesitate as I'm waiting for a new athena from HTC. But perhaps Iphone is not such a bad idea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with you there. I have actually purchased a MacBook Pro to replace my old Toshiba Satellite 5105 s702 recently. Even though I installed XP (dual boot) on the MacBook Pro, I found myself using OS X on it more than XP. I plan to do the same (buy an iPhone) when my Athena dies. Micro$oft has lost control of their hardware vendors who have no interest in long term support/loyalty building and only interested in taking customers' money and run.
our dear athenas
"I am no expert but I think it is possible to port a memory kernel to the athena but this exceeds my capabilities and I am yet to find someone who can do it."
avengerpenguin,
Like sb else has written here, I also don't want to be misundersood as I have a lot of respect for all the cooks here, and especially for you as I have been following your work on win 6.5 ROM. If there were more guys here with so much enthusiasm, perhaps we wouldn't be moaning about windows mobile.
Anyway I still use a cooked rom so even with some minor bugs we can at least partly enjoy our athenas. I guess HTC has just forgotten about probably the most loyal user group - athena owners. I have had mine for almost 3 years and got used to it so much that it's a pain for me to think that there may come the time when I'll have to replace it.
All these wonderful ROMs; I am impressed but:
1) I obtained my HTC Touch Pro by trading an unwanted/unneeded old notebook computer for it so kinda sorta in a way I got the phone "for nothing".
Addition: IE: I didn't purposely spent $400 to get this phone. I just got it.
2) I don't really need a pocket PC.
Addition: Not now. Not today. Maybe later.
3) I don't really need a smart phone.
Addition: The key word being "need". All I "need" right now is a phone. I'll trade all the cool fancyness for battery life. My old Straight Talk phone could sit there on standby for a week and not have the battery indicator drop more than a couple notches if even that much. I could use it for all week without charging it. Yes, I know the TP is a Pocket PC and a phone; just making a point.
4) The battery life on this thing is horrible (24 hours on standby costs 20%+ of the battery power) I assume it's because it's doing all those extra Pocket PC/Windows stuff in the background.
Addition: If I charge it before I go out and charge it while I'm out it may last the entire day but likely not.
5) All I really *need* is a camera phone. Phone calls, voicemail, text/media messages, snapshot and video, ...that's about it.
6) The extra unneeded stuff is taking up flash-ram space that could be used for storing pictures and video.
Addition: Strip it all out and I'll have room for lots of pic and videos.
7) Flashing back to the original ROM is easy and takes a few minutes so no harm done by "dumbing-down" the current ROM.
Addition: When I want the smart phone I'll flash on a super-duper all-singing-all-dancing ROM.
8) A Pocket PC is very cool but if I want a portable computer I have a much more powerful very nice netbook that is more or less a part of my body so I don't *need* another computer on my person.
That said, has anybody make a stripped down/basic/bare minumum/no frills/no extras/maximum battery life/minimum flash memory used/no fancy stuff/no wifi/gps/internet connection/nuttin-but-a-camera phone ROM?
Addition: IE: Don't do nothing but make calls and take pictures. Simple. Fast. Maximum battery life. A Dumb Phone (for now anyway).
Thanks.
P.S. No. I don't wish to trade it for a dumb phone. I may some day want a smart phone/Pocket PC but not right now.
Fred Doolie said:
4) The battery life on this thing is horrible (24 hours on standby costs 20%+ of the battery power) I assume it's because it's doing all those extra Pocket PC/Windows stuff in the background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure what your expectations are, but only losing 20% in 24 hours is great! I doubt you'll do any better than that. An always active data connection, GPS, and Wi-Fi are the big things that are going to kill battery life, not the OS. I would make sure you have the matching rilphone.dll for the version of radio you are using, however.
Fred Doolie said:
That said, has anybody make a stripped down/basic/bare minumum/no frills/no extras/maximum battery life/minimum flash memory used/no fancy stuff/no wifi/gps/internet connection/nuttin-but-a-camera phone ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you've basically described is a Stock ROM. These are basically just ROMs with the newest build of Windows Mobile and some essential apps, meaning that memory and CPU usage is low. But most of the things that consume battery are switch-off-able, such as the backlight, WiFi, 3G connection, GPS, Bluetooth etc. through the Settings menu or the Comm Manager. If you haven't flashed your phone to a custom ROM yet, you won't get much more basic than the standard 6.1 ROM that your carrier put on the phone to start with.
If you do want Windows Mobile 6.5 but don't want all the frills, you can either be brave and cook a stock-like ROM yourself, or try one from the forums:
[KITCHEN][ROM][WWE][MAR-13-2010] RomRom WM6.5 23547 stock-like Kitchen & ROM is the most updated stock-like kitchen/ROM.
rmcknight:
>I'm not sure what your expectations are, but only losing 20% in
> 24 hours is great!
But that's in Airplane mode (all radios off)! With the radios on it will stand by for about a day before the battery is dead.
Expectations:
"Standby time: Up to 462 hours for WCDMA"
"Talk time: Up to 378 minutes for WCDMA"
http://www.htc.com/www/product/touchpro/specification.html
Reality:
More like up to 120 hours and up to 90 minutes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ben Dude,
>What you've basically described is a Stock ROM.
>meaning that memory and CPU usage is low.
>much more basic than the standard 6.1 ROM that your carrier
>put on the phone to start with.
Sad to hear. The ROM that came with the phone is full of extra stuff and sucks the battery like crazy. The Energy ROM I flashed has even more stuff seems to be easier on battery life. We'll see. This Energy ROM is very cool and maybe I DO want a smart phone right now. The main thing was the battery life. I thought stripping down a ROM would increase battery life due to less stuff running and taking up precious flashram space. Well, SD cards are cheap I guess. I can move as much as possible to external storage.
Maybe I'll have to learn to cook. A stripped-down stock ROM with *everything* removed except phone and camera software. It boots up to a nice wallpaper with two buttons that say "Phone" and "Camera". All radios except phone deactivated. It might be fun to learn how to do that.
Thanks, Guys.
I would happily trade you an LG Xenon for your Fuze.
Fred Doolie said:
rmcknight:
Maybe I'll have to learn to cook. A stripped-down stock ROM with *everything* removed except phone and camera software. It boots up to a nice wallpaper with two buttons that say "Phone" and "Camera". All radios except phone deactivated. It might be fun to learn how to do that.
Thanks, Guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try, but you'll still have to flash the entire operating system; as far as I know it's not as easy as what you've said. I suppose the closest would be a 6.1 ROM without Manila (HTC Sense), no bloatware installed and the hotkeys set as 'phone' and 'camera'. But I doubt that it would be worth trying to truly 'cook out' things like GPS, as they really can be switched off with one button press, and that's probably why nobody does (hence your search for a ROM ).
I've had amazing battery life using the ROM in my sig (dont even think about using android though-- it's fun but not ready for daily use).
install S2U2 -- it makes locking easier but also reduces how often the screen turns on in your pocket. You can set up the screen off delays and such and it saves you a ton of battery life.
Disable the touchflo home screen-- it's pretty superfluous and probably drains battery faster.
If battery life is really bad, consider buying a new one. Check the total talk time (start -> settings -> device information -> call duration) to get an idea of how used the phone is. Those counters don't reset when you flash a new ROM.
try timolols and turn off data.
@ Myrddin
I'll bet you would! Thanks but I want this phone; just trying to make it "My Phone" rather than "Sprint's Phone".
@Storm 717
>I've had amazing battery life using the
> ROM in my sig
I'll try it. As long as I still have my Sprint Picture Mail. It's the only app I really use and need.
>install S2U2 -- it makes locking easier
Been there done that. LOVE it!
>Disable the touchflo home screen
BTDT
>Check the total talk time (start ->
>settings -> device information ->
>call duration) to get an idea of how
>used the phone is.
What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?
See the screenshots.
As long as I have posted them, anybody see a problem with the versions and numbers?
just make sure if you flash to flash a CMDA one and not a GSM rom or you will likely brick your phone
jul644 said:
just make sure if you flash to flash a CMDA one and not a GSM rom or you will likely brick your phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I've read that and believe it but why? Wouldn't it just not work and then you flash a proper ROM over it?
I know that if you give a little donation to NRGZ or the Capn they can do a perfect ROM for your "need"
Talk to them!
I hate to promote my own ROM, but give my stock-like ROM a try. It's almost exactly what you describe.
Alternatively, I can whip up an even more stripped-down version if you like. Let me know.
.
Fred Doolie said:
Yes, I've read that and believe it but why? Wouldn't it just not work and then you flash a proper ROM over it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its because the amount of voltage/wattage to the radio (the part that connects to the network) is different between gsm and cmda so when you flash a cmda rom on a gsm(sim card)phone then it literally breaks it and also happens vis-versa
response and modification request
jul644 said:
its because the amount of voltage/wattage to the radio (the part that connects to the network) is different between gsm and cmda so when you flash a cmda rom on a gsm(sim card)phone then it literally breaks it and also happens vis-versa
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's bad designing. You'd think there would be a check for that in the hardware in case some noobie tech at Sprint/Verizon/AT&T was really tired and tried to update your phone with the wrong ROM. Like a splashscreen saying "GSM Verizon Diamond ROM detected - This is a Touch Pro 1 CDMA Phone" and then it just stops dead on that screen with an endless do-nothing loop.
************
MODIFICATION REQUEST, YOU BRAINS OUT THERE! CAN IT BE DONE?
SAVE US FROM OURSELVES! Can the phones be modified to detect improper ROMs so it doesn't even try to fully boot up/blow up? Some of us are really stu.. frightened noobies.
************
Or a modification in the [one of those files in the RUU folder] that examines the phone and refuses to proceed if the .nbh filoes doesn't match the phone it sees".
Is there any other way to brick a phone. The child in me wants to play with cool stuff but the adult in me says if "it aint broke don't fix it! You don't need a $400 brick"!
* Yes, I know about Hackentosh but don't understand how it works.
On the official HTC site, you can only download a ROM after you type in your phone's serial number, which checks that you have the right hardware for the upgrade. As far as HTC care, this matter has been dealt with. I would guess that techs working for carriers probably have to input your SN too.
There are so many tutorials and guides on this site for first time flashers that if they don't read them first, it's their own fault for being ignorant. Most chefs will warn about it too.
ben_duder said:
Most chefs will warn about it too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes but sadly a few don't. I have seen at least one post in the CDMA section that mentions way down "Remove the sim card while flashing the ROM". Oop, that's a GSM phone, no? If I would missed that one line I may have flashed that ROM by accident. Also, a few say something like "For the TP" but don't mention CDMA or GSM anywhere. You have to HOPE it's in the correct section. I just wanted to be 100% safe from accidents.
---
Moot point though; I'm through with flashing. None of the ROMs I found were as smooth and fast as the stock ROM. Beautiful, oh yes, but slow and locking up the phone every little while. It stinks but it runs fine.
I think it's just probably because this site is dedicated to getting the most out of our devices and what you're looking for just doesn't fit in with that. In my experience, I've never had a slow, unstable or just unusable stock ROM. I think your best bet is just to buy a bigger microSD card if you want more space for media, stick with WM6.1 and switch off everything you don't need (3G connection, Wi-Fi, screen brightness, any bloatware, Bluetooth, you know the rest).
With regards to the CDMA/GSM issue, I've never really considered it because I've never been the first to try out a ROM. If it really was posted in the wrong section (which I think is unlikely) it would only take one person other than yourself to flash it and comment before everyone realised. Just make sure you're not that person
Fred Doolie said:
Well, that's bad designing. You'd think there would be a check for that in the hardware in case some noobie tech at Sprint/Verizon/AT&T was really tired and tried to update your phone with the wrong ROM. Like a splashscreen saying "GSM Verizon Diamond ROM detected - This is a Touch Pro 1 CDMA Phone" and then it just stops dead on that screen with an endless do-nothing loop.
************
MODIFICATION REQUEST, YOU BRAINS OUT THERE! CAN IT BE DONE?
SAVE US FROM OURSELVES! Can the phones be modified to detect improper ROMs so it doesn't even try to fully boot up/blow up? Some of us are really stu.. frightened noobies.
************
Or a modification in the [one of those files in the RUU folder] that examines the phone and refuses to proceed if the .nbh filoes doesn't match the phone it sees".
Is there any other way to brick a phone. The child in me wants to play with cool stuff but the adult in me says if "it aint broke don't fix it! You don't need a $400 brick"!
* Yes, I know about Hackentosh but don't understand how it works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First answer is that yes the manufacturers DO in fact have a way to block improper roms. This is why they initially have a CID lock. CID locks prevent the usage of Non-Carrier roms being installed on the phone. Once its had this lock removed, you are able to install non-factory firmwares ( like the ones these wonderful chefs create for us ). In a sense, you take it in your own hands if you flash the wrong firmware for your device, because you have already removed the protection from the carrier.
Second answer. A Hackintosh is computer not made by apple that is running Apples OSX. There are several ways to achieve this, one of which is using an EFI ( Apples Bios Type ) Emulator such as Chameleon or Boot123 , or by using a chipset capable of running the Vanilla ( OEM ) Kernel as is ( Specific Intel chipsets ). I could help direct you to the proper places to discuss this in a PM if you want further information.
Hope those answers helped some
pyraxiate said:
1) CID locks prevent the usage of Non-Carrier roms being installed on the phone.
2) A Hackintosh is computer not made by apple that is running Apples OSX.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) I see. Thanks.
Thought!
The official Sprint upgrade ROM package works on a locked phone. I've installed it. It flashed and worked.
The official Sprint upgrade ROM's .nph file is a signed ROM, right? A signed ROM will get past the CID lock.
You guys are geniuses. Why not put a "sign" code into a cooked ROM for safety? Leave the CID protection in place and let it block incorrect ROMS. Am I being too simplistic?
2) The hackintosh line was a leftover from when I was composing the post. I should have seen and removed it.
Well, I am looking to buy a phone for my mother http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=776087
And I am thinking that Hero could be the one.
I have just some questions about this Android phone.
1) Can I change the language of the ROM to lets say, French, Portuguese or Greek?
2) Is the community still active for this phone?
3) Any major problems that you can report?
How is the camera, Battery life, screen?
4) Is the GPS bad?
5) How is the screen for SMS writing?
I have never tried an Android phone, just what I have seen on youtube and read here, but I think it should be intuitive enough for my mother to learn how to use the main futures.
If you could give me some input, I would greatly appreciate it.
PS: My thought would be, buy this phone on ebay, put some good stable and nice looking ROM on it (hopefully I will be able to find a French, Portuguese or Greek one), install some French dictionaries, put some mp3, and leave it like that.
Johev said:
Well, I am looking to buy a phone for my mother http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=776087
And I am thinking that Hero could be the one.
I have just some questions about this Android phone.
1) Can I change the language of the ROM to lets say, French, Portuguese or Greek?
2) Is the community still active for this phone?
3) Any major problems that you can report?
How is the camera, Battery life, screen?
4) Is the GPS bad?
5) How is the screen for SMS writing?
I have never tried an Android phone, just what I have seen on youtube and read here, but I think it should be intuitive enough for my mother to learn how to use the main futures.
If you could give me some input, I would greatly appreciate it.
PS: My thought would be, buy this phone on ebay, put some good stable and nice looking ROM on it (hopefully I will be able to find a French, Portuguese or Greek one), install some French dictionaries, put some mp3, and leave it like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Yes, you can do so on most 2.1 Sense ROMs
2) Yes, although much effort is focussed on 2.2 Froyo (no sense yet) ROMs. Take a look in the development forum.
3) None of those should be an issue, though some heros do give up on the screen after a while at the bottom, and need sent back to HTC.
4) GPS is alright I think it's good, but I don't know what you want me to compare it to. Very accurate usually (8 metre fix)
5) I like it for that, with SwiftKey. But I don't know how well it would work for your mother, and it depends on how tech-savvy she is as to if she'll like it and find it useful.
If you're after a ROM to install and leave, get a 2.1 Sense one, or maybe stock.
The main features are easy enough to use, but I'm not your mother, so perhaps try it out in a shop first if possible, to see if she likes the concept of touchscreen. TBH I wouldn't buy my mum this phone, as she just doesn't get on with technology, so it depends on what she's like with small gadgets and buttons
Johev said:
Well, I am looking to buy a phone for my mother
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get a Desire or Samsung Galaxy S, pretty much superior in every way and usually the same price. If you're still thinking hero here are my answers that differ to pulsar's:
3: you may find various different problems with custom rom's but they are so varied its hard to say whether the problem will affect you or not - it is usually dependant on which features/apps etc you use. That's not to say the official releases are any better, in fact from what i've read they are often just as bad or worse for problems. The good thing is once you're on custom rom's you can quickly and easily try out a few.
Battery life - with the latest custom rom's I haven't had battery issues at all, but for best battery life try to reduce the use of 3G, WiFi and GPS and set the brightness to automatic or low. On heavy use the battery can last as little as 4 hours but with average use you usually see 24 hours or more and on low use i've got 4-6 days out of it. You can also get bigger batteries (sometimes makes the phone bigger too though) which can last 14 days or more on low use.
4: GPS has its issues! Some people appear to have issues regardless of what they do, others have reported it being broken in every rom try, most find at least 1 custom rom which works for them. From what i can tell ~90% of people appear to have working GPS, however for best results try to get a lock in an outdoors environment whilst the phone isn't moving, once the lock is established it is generally never lost (in my experience) until you turn it off or stop using it.
5: for SMS writing I found that the screen was odd to use at first but it only took a few texts to get used to it, after a week I was texting faster than the phone could handle (back when the phone was slower and non-custom rom) but you get used to its speed and adjust accordingly. It corrects most of what I mistype anyway so even if i type an entire word wrong it can still work out what you mean (almost seems like magic sometimes). Once again this is something you have to get used too but mistakes happen all the time on the keyboard, I am really happy it has the auto-correct feature (something the iPhone lacks).
Other points:
Android sounds scarier than it is. It is definitely different to the flash and simple looking iPhone but it has much greater functionality and customisability. If you don't like something about it chances are someone else doesn't too and there is usually a way to change it! As I said before the Desire or Samsung Galaxy are the current way to go (better hardware and will receive future updates too). The Hero is on the back end of its lifetime.
Benefits to hero:
- Custom ROM's are more stable as they have been developed for a long time
- Knowledgeable community because of how long things have been going
Drawbacks:
- Members are moving away to newer phones
- End of life product and no future official updates
- Slower due to hardware restraints
Thank you all for your input. If it was for someone who would really use it well, I would definetly get a HTC Desire, but I my mothers last phone was a nokia 2630.